The Hardware Trap: Why We Abandoned the “Value-for-Money” Battlefield

Fellow hardware founders, let’s be honest:

we’ve been chasing the wrong metric.

For years, the industry has been locked in an endless specs war — more DPI, more buttons, more RGB, more “value.” We kept optimizing for the spreadsheet… while forgetting the most important form of currency:

Emotional connection.

At PB TAILS, we made a conscious decision to walk away.

Not because we can’t compete on specs — our TMR joysticks deliver 300% higher precision — but because we believe the future belongs to those who build souls, not just shells.

Here’s the philosophy we chose instead:

 

🔹 Design Is Not a Coat of Paint

Design isn’t the decoration layer.

It is the architecture.

The curves of the CRUSH defender aren’t “aesthetic choices.”

They are lifted directly from the Porsche 550 Spyder’s aerodynamic geometry — curves shaped by wind tunnels and racing physics.

Every contour serves two masters:

Ergonomics and emotion.

 

🔹 Technology Should Be Felt, Not Read

While many brands advertise Hall Effect sensors,

we moved beyond it to TMR.

Not because it looks better on a spec sheet, but because:

“Zero drift” shouldn’t be a feature — it should be trust.

Trust that your controller won’t betray you in a championship round.

Trust that precision is not theoretical but lived.

 

🔹 Price Premiums Must Be Earned Through Poetry

Our users aren’t paying for a controller.

They’re investing in a piece of design philosophy

that just happens to also be the most precise tool they own.

People don’t fall in love with specs.

They fall in love with stories, with beauty, with meaning.

 

 

 

The Market Is Shifting

 

Consumers — especially the new generation of gamers — are hungry for hardware that respects both:

their intelligence

and

their aesthetics.

They want gear that performs like a weapon

and looks like an object of art.

 

 

To Every Founder Stuck in the “Value-for-Money” Loop

 

Ask yourself:

What is the unique language your brand is speaking?

What emotion are you designing for?

What story are you telling through materials, curves, and engineering decisions?

It’s time for a conversation about the future of hardware —

a future built beyond the spec sheet.